Food Mission: Tsim Chai Kee @ Wellington Street, Hong Kong

Didn’t really spend too much time on itinerary planning for this trip. Whatever time I could spare went into researching food places to go, heh 😛

Having tried Mak’s Noodles in my last 2 trips to Hong Kong, this time round, after reading various reviews, decided to check out its competitor right across the road – Tsim Chai Kee. Even more apt – my very 1st food stop after dropping off my luggage.

Tsim Chai Kee is not difficult find once I got onto Wellington Street proper. You just need to look out for Mak’s signage, and they are located right across the road.

As you can see from the picture, not a very big outlet, and very functional in design and interior. Was busy getting the wifi (from my pocket wifi) up so no pictures of the interior.

Unlike Mak’s, the main selling point of Tsim Chai Kee is their very competitive pricing – HKD25 per bowl of wanton noodles (as versus to the HKD35 Mak’s is charging for a much smaller bowl). Another 2 key differentiators would be the huge sized wantons (as compared to the smallish one’s by Mak’s) and also the option to add on beef slices and/or giant homemade fishballs (as compared to Mak’s who serves purely wanton noodle soup/dry).

Ordered their Wanton Noodles, together with a beef add on. As you can see from the picture above, the bowl is already overflowing with 2 huge wantons and plentiful of beef slices. Having another fishball will be too much. And this is all for HKD31 – which is really cheap for HK Standards, especially where food in Central is concerned.

My verdict on the meal itself – the wantons were huge, with plenty of filling (pork and 2 prawns), and very crunchy to the mouth …… while the beef slices were very tender, and give the soup a stronger, fuller flavour. The noodles (which you don’t see in the picture as the ingredients were already overflowing as it is :P) were springy and smooth to the taste, and not overcooked.

The only minus was the slight jian shui (alkaline water) taste towards the end of the meal. It felt kind of saltish, and somehow made me really thristy towards the end of the meal (noted many people around me ordering soft drinks to go with their noodles). This is probably one of the things that will drop 1/2 star from the final rating. For all the complaints about Mak’s (small bowl, expensive price, small wantons) – noodles wise, they do a better job without that jian shui taste.